resurrection – The Raynville Rambler

Reconnecting people

A sermon for Bramley St Peter, 26 March 2023

Readings: Ezekiel 37:1-11 / John 11:17-44

Ezekiel was a weird guy. Really weird. He was master of the ‘acted parable’, what we might now call ‘public protest’. Think of Brian Haw who protested in a tent outside Parliament for nearly ten years, or Extinction Rebellion activists gluing themselves to motorways. But that’s nothing to Ezekiel’s protests. For four years he said nothing but acted out the prophesises God gave him as a mime artist would. He lay, bound in ropes, on his left side for over a year to represent 390 years of rebellion against God. During this time (in which he baked bread over cow dung) he had to act out the siege of Jerusalem using a model of the city so as to attract the attention of passers-by. On another occasion he packed his bags and made as if to leave the city through a hole in the wall, as a sign that the walls of Jerusalem were about to be broken down. Such people disturb the complacency with which most of us meekly accept the injustices that we see around us, even when we know that people will suffer if they are not challenged.

This vision of the dry bones was different. It was for Ezekiel’s benefit alone. Now if you think of skeletons as like the plastic ones you might see in a medical student’s room – all connected together, nice and clean and in an obvious human shape, that isn’t usually the case.

As a student I was once on an archaeological dig, finding nothing more interesting than bits of pottery, when one of my friends found a complete skeleton. And here it is – the remains of a young woman from the iron age. Hard even to make out the individual bones after so long, and not even a human shape. Can these bones live? You’re joking!

The vivid image that God showed to Ezekiel was to demonstrate that the people of Israel and Judah who had been exiled to Babylon were so disconnected, from each other and from their cultural roots and traditions, that they were like a pile of bones that couldn’t even be counted as distinct skeletons. As it says in the last verse: dried up, hope lost, completely cut off. Only the breath of God could reverse what had happened.

And it did. Bone came to bone, sinews and flesh and skin reappeared, and life was breathed back into them. Later in the same book we get the interpretation, as we read the prophecy that all the twelve tribes of Israel would be restored to the Holy Land, on a basis of equality under God once more.

In a word, God had shown Ezekiel that he, and he alone, can reconnect disconnected people to each other, to their land and to himself. And that’s my theme: disconnectedness, something which permeates our society today. Another word for it, used by sociologists, is ‘desocialisation’. It includes the widespread problem of loneliness. I’ve used this quote before, but it’s worth repeating:

“When Andrew Smith died, nobody noticed. His flat, number 171, was at the end of the row on the second floor. His body was discovered when a neighbour, someone he had never talked to, smelt something bad and phoned the police. Andrew Smith had been dead for two months. There were no details of his next of kin, no photos of his family, nothing in his flat to suggest he had any friends. He had nobody, and died lonely.”[1]

But there’s more to disconnectedness than the lonely individual.

Just this week we have heard the damning report of the institutional failings of the Police in London. The charge sheet of sins directed by Ezekiel against God’s people, includes many failings of our own society. It does not take much paraphrasing of the text of chapter 22 to read these charges as: dysfunctional families, injustice for immigrants, insufficient support for the poorest in society, sexual violence, a financial system that leads people into debt, and dishonesty in business. Those charges can certainly be laid against Britain today.

But the charges also include a loss of a sense of what is holy, a failing that is not mentioned in the secular media and yet is at the root of our problems. There is undoubtedly a connection between society becoming more secular and the breakdown of communities. The word ‘religion’ ultimately means ‘connection’ – connection between people as well as between us and God. In the Going Deeper group this week Julia asked us what are the signs of disconnectedness in Bramley today. Some of the answers revolved around a lack of a sense of connection between one small neighbourhood and another, members of the same family not speaking to each other for years on end, and a sense of the injustice of mass movement of people by the council when estates were redeveloped fifty years ago – in the time of the grandparents of the people living there now. Here’s a quotation that isn’t about Bramley but could have been-
“I was in my home town walking down the main street looking in the shops – nobody knows anyone here. Then I remembered how this street used to be with family businesses and names on the shop fronts that never changed, where people spoke to each other … Always somebody spoke to me, knew my name”.[2]

Even within the church I see this problem of disconnectedness. In my job, I often talk to the Churchwarden of some small congregation that is really struggling to keep going, either financially or spiritually. They are so absorbed in their own local troubles that they cannot see the big picture, cannot relate even to the other churches in their own area, let alone the whole Diocese, Church of England or the universal church of billions of believers in Jesus.

And so it was, leaping forward several hundred years, that Jesus came to Bethany, to a community mourning one of its leading men. I just want you to pause for a minute and think where you are in this story of the raising of Lazarus. So often we imagine ourselves in the Gospel stories as in the position of a film crew, next to or in front of Jesus and watching his every move, or as his disciples stood behind him. But it’s unlikely we can identify as Jesus, the one fully in control of the situation. Maybe you’re more like Martha – ever the organised one, coping with grief by being active, going out looking for Jesus as soon as word arrives that he’s on his way, and begging him to act. Or perhaps you’re more like Mary, spiritually aware and seeing the need for healing all around, but confused and inconsolable, desperate to be reconnected to the brother she loved. Or maybe even like Lazarus. Remember – he was the other side of this solid tombstone, bound in strips of cloth, perhaps already awake, but wondering where he was, unable to move or communicate with those outside. Totally lacking in power and control. Like many people today. Do you identify with Lazarus?

As a church we have adopted the mission statement of ‘revealing God’s love in Bramley’. We chose that because we are the fortunate ones, who know that God is here, and that he does love us. We as Christians know we are connected to each other and to God by meeting regularly together, reading the same Bible, saying the same prayers, breaking the communion bread and declaring ourselves to be parts of one body. But few people outside the church community feel that way any more, which is why we are compelled by the love of God to reveal this marvellous truth to those around us.

Through Ezekiel, God reconnected the bones as a symbol of the scattered people of Israel being reconnected to each other and to the promised land. Jesus in Bethany reconnected Lazarus to his sisters as a symbol of us all being reconnected to God, both before and after death. We live in a time when many people feel disconnected from society in the many ways I have described, and God calls us to share in his work of reconnecting people with each other and with him.

So, if you feel like a disconnected bone, ask Jesus to breath his Holy Spirit into you, to reconnect you with the body and bring you back to fullness of life. If you are confused like Mary about all that’s going on and weeping inside for whoever or whatever is missing from your life, ask Jesus the consoler to reconnect you with his love, and share it with others. If you are like activists Martha and Ezekiel, ask God to give you the gifts to bring about his Kingdom and reconnect people through your activities. And if you, like Lazarus, feel there is no way out of whatever entombs you, remember – Lazarus’s tombstone was rolled away, as was the stone that held Jesus in his tomb at Easter. God’s power is sufficient to roll yours way too. Can these bones live? Yes they can! Amen!

[roll away stone!]

[1] A. Leve, Sunday Times, 2/9/2007, quoted by M. Fforde in “Desocialisation”, 2009.

[2] R Weatherill, “Cultural collapse”, 1994, quoted by Fforde p.166.

We shall see Him in the morning

Jesus cooks breakfast for his disciples
image- merrycatholic.blogspot.com artist unknown

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is ‘We shall see him in the morning’ by Randle Manwaring. John chose to use an old Welsh hymn tune rather than the one written for these words.

I had originally chosen this for Armistice day, as a cursory reading of the words seemed to suggest it may have been written with that In mind (especially the reference to those who have ‘toiled and struggled till the earthly fight was won’) but John suggested swapping it for one that’s more explicit about that. The ‘earthly fight’ may in any case be intended as metaphysical, i.e. the struggle against evil, rather than referring to wars between nations.

Either way, whether soldiers of an earthly king or of the heavenly one are intended, the message is that it’s worth a struggle to live a holy life now, for the reward we will get in the next life. That reward is pictured as the welcoming arms of Jesus and his commendation for our efforts (“his welcoming ‘Well done!’”).

The ‘breakfast celebration’ (referring to the meal he cooked for his disciples when he met them on the shores of Galilee after his Resurrection) as well as the ‘mists of life’ suggests that the ‘toil all night’ may also hark back to their fruitless fishing expedition, in which case the promised welcome is not only for soldiers and spiritual heroes, but for all who have lived an honest and hard-working life.

You shall go out with joy

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is “You shall go out with joy”. When I saw the title I thought I knew it, but this is not the popular 1980s chorus of the same title, rather a more traditional style hymn based on the same passage in Isaiah 55:10-13. The author is N.T. Wright, best known as a former Bishop of Durham and writer of Bible commentaries. This is the first hymn I have come across attributed to him.

The structure is slightly unusual. Each of the four verses consists of six lines, the first four being taken from Isaiah’s prophecy, and the last two being statements of Christian faith related to Easter.

The first two verses with their anthropomorphic image of the mountains and hills singing and the trees clapping (i.e. the whole creation praising God) are paired with statements that Jesus’ love has conquered death and that he lives to heal and save – a fact certainly worthy of praise. The third takes the image of God’s word refreshing like rain or snow and (by way of the conventional title of Jesus as Word of God) links with the risen Word giving life to all. The last verse take the image of replacing briars and thorns with myrtle and cypress (attractive and sweet smelling trees) and concludes with Jesus’ titles of himself as the way, the truth and the life – an attractive and pleasing way of life no doubt, but the original context (as Wright must know) was in a call for people to turn to God for their sins to be pardoned.

With respect to the Bishop I am not convinced by these particular pairings, which seem rather contrived in the manner of “the holly and the ivy”. Whilst many passages in Isaiah are generally accepted as prophecies of the Messiah (Christ), the Isaiah passage is titled (in the New Revised Standard Version) as “An invitation to abundant life”, but is not one of the so-called Servant Songs. The couplets expressing Christian faith that conclude each verse are perfectly orthodox, but cannot be deduced directly or (as far as I can see) indirectly from the words that precede them. It’s good poetry, and sound theology, but the two sets of statements don’t really belong together.

Jesus is risen, Alleluia!

Christians in Ihimbo, Tanzania
From the website of St Stephen’s Lutheran Church, WSP

There are no doubt several hymns or worship songs with this title, but the one I have chosen today from Sing Praise is John Bell’s translation of a Tanzanian song of praise. I love the simple and easily learnt melodies and harmonies of East African songs, coming from a part of the world where communal singing is still an essential part of life in a way that has been lost in most ‘developed’ countries.

African Christians also seem to have a joy in their faith that we have lost in an over-cautious and over-intellectualised Western religion. From the start, this hymn is full of the confidence and joy of the first Christians that Jesus is alive and worthy of praise. Just listen to some of the phrases in this song: “Come let us worship him, endlessly sing!”; “Blest are the hearts which for him rejoice”; “Go and tell others, Christ is alive”; “Let heaven echo, let the earth sing: Jesus is saviour of everything”; and the final line, “Therefore rejoice, obey and believe”. This hymn will truly send me into the day rejoicing.

Today I awake and God is before me

Raindrops and chapel. Copyright Stephen Craven 2005.

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is “Today I awake and God is before me”. It comes with its own tune written by the composer, John Bell, but I first came across it to the tune better known to the words “Morning has broken”. Like that one, it is a “morning hymn” rather than specifically an Easter one, but in the Easter season we are reminded that Christ’s resurrection revealed at daybreak on Easter day was as a new morning for the world. In form, the hymn is Trinitarian – one verse each referring to the Creator, Son and Holy Spirit and one to the Trinity (three persons, one God).

Equally important, I would say, are the verbs used at the start of each verse: I awake, I arise, I affirm, I enjoy. Everyone goes to bed expecting to awake in the morning, though knowing that one day we will not. Nearly everyone (except for those afflicted by disease or disability) is able to arise. But to affirm and enjoy the new day is a matter of the will. in verse 1, we sing “God never sleeps but patterns the morning in slithers of gold or glory in grey”. I have illustrated this post with a photo taken in 2005 when I was on a photographic holiday retreat at Scargill House, in wet and grey weather unsuitable for outdoor colour photography. We sang this hymn and were encouraged to take monochrome and indoor photos instead. This one shows the chapel – representing the praise of God – beyond the raindrops in the foreground.

While come people’s circumstances make it easier to do so, it is the ability to thank God even for the “glories of a grey day” that perhaps makes the difference between those who find cause to grumble right from the start of the day even when there is much to give thanks for, and those who manage to find good things in life around them, however challenging their circumstances. The singing of a hymn of praise at the start of the day is a good way to get into the right mood.

In verse 2 we sing of Christ who “walked through the dark to scatter new light”. He did that on earth, bringing hope to the sick and sinful, but supremely in death and resurrection. “Yes, Christ is alive, and beckons his people to hope and to heal, resist and invite”. It is that hope in the one who brings new life in the most hopeless circumstances that allows us to enter each new day joyfully.

Verse 3 affirms the work of the Holy Spirit, while in verse 4 we “enjoy” God’s presence in any way, who “called me to life and called me their friend”. I would just query here the use of the plural “they/their”, which I doubt is intended to reflect current usage by transgender or non-binary people. It may just be to avoid gendering God as ‘he’ (John Bell has written other hymns that address the Spirit, at least, as ‘she’) but seems to go against the traditional Christian understanding that the three ‘persons’ of the Trinity are one God.

If Christ had not been raised…

Today’s hymn choice from Sing Praise is “If Christ had not been raised from death” by Christopher Idle, which can be sung to either of the tunes to the older hymn “I heard the voice of Jesus say”. It is based on 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and the three verses all start with “If…”, changing in the second half of the verse to “But…”. This “if/but” language makes clear the distinctions between those who have faith in Christ and those who don’t.

In verse 1, “If Christ had not been raised” (in which case all religious activity is meaningless) is countered with “but now the Lord is risen indeed” (the common Easter acclamation) which means that “in Christ we are forgiven”. In verse 2, “If Christ still lay within the tomb” (meaning death is the finality it appears to be) is opposed with “But now the saviour is raised up”. The reality of physical death and separation is acknowledged as it should be, while also believing in a future life: “when a Christian dies we mourn, yet look to God in hope”. Verse 3 starts with “If Christ had not been truly raised”, the implication of which is that all our proclamations of everlasting life are lies. But… “now our great Redeemer lives, through him we are restored”.

These three affirmations of the truth of the Resurrection are shown to lead to forgiveness, a promise of eternal life, and restoration to God’s fellowship in the here-and-now, instead of guilt, death as the end of our being, and separation from God (logically, verse 3 might come before verse 2). That affirmation of relationship is at the core of Christianity, rather than any rules and regulations.

This is the night of new beginnings

Easter Vigil at the church of the Ascension, Oak Park, IL, USA

Today’s hymn choice from Sing Praise is “This is the night of new beginnings” by Bernadette Farrell. The tune and the words of the chorus are the same as her hymn “Longing for light”. At first I thought the present hymn an adaptation of that one, but see John’s comment below, that this hymn dates from 1990 & 1991, and “Longing for light” is later (1993).

These original words, then, are intended for the Easter vigil. This ceremony is observed by some, but by no means all, church congregations, either at sunset on Easter eve or sunrise on Easter morning depending on local preference). Neither is ‘wrong’, for who can say at what moment Christ was resurrected between the start of the Sabbath (Friday evening) when the women went home and the rising of the sun on Easter Sunday when they returned? The emphasis varies with the chosen time: if at sunset, it’s about entering the darkness, the loss of contact with God as Jesus his son has died (while also anticipating the resurrection). We do need this in our spiritual lives, an acknowledgement that sometimes God seems absent and life seems hopeless, and faith in the resurrection seems a distant hope.

If the vigil takes place around sunrise, it begins in sombre darkness, often gathered around a fire, but as the day dawns the Easter candle is lit from the fire and carried into church with great shouts of “The light of Christ!” and “Alleluia, Christ is risen!”

This year, of course, it was all different. At our church at least, the Covid restrictions meant there was no singing other than the Vicar’s wife singing an Easter song quietly outside the church, and a strong wind meant that the Easter candle had to be lit indoors (there was no fire anyway: our service is not at dawn).

But back to the words of the hymn. Both options above seem to be covered: verse 1 speaks of the “night of new beginnings” (a reminder to me of an Easter sermon by the late Revd Val Clarke who described the Christian life lived in the light of the Resurrection as “the land of Begin-Again”). Verse 2 is about the “night Christ our Redeemer rose from the grave triumphant and free”. The middle verse speaks of the fire kindled in darkness to dispel the shadows of night.

Verse 4, which should probably be marked with an increase in volume and maybe tempo, urges people to “Sing of the hope deeper than dying, sing of the power stronger than death, sing of the love endless as heaven, dawning throughout the earth”. I love those words: it reminds us that the Easter celebration is not for the individual, nor just the local congregation nor even the totality of Christians worldwide, a billion strong though we are. No, Easter is for the whole of creation to sing praise to our redeeming God.

Finally, as the sun rises perhaps, the last verse proclaims that “into this world morning is breaking” and calls God’s people to “lift up your voice, cry out with joy, tell out the story, all of the earth rejoice!”

The chorus after each verse is “Christ be our light, shine in our hearts, shine through the darkness. Christ be our light, shine in your church gathered today”. This is another reminder that we are part of a larger whole.

I will sing the Lord’s high triumph

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is “I will sing the Lord’s high triumph” by Christopher Idle, a contemporary adaptation of perhaps one of the oldest known songs of praise, that of Moses and his sister Miriam recorded in Exodus chapter 15. That song celebrates the freedom of the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt and the destruction of their Egyptian captors in the ‘Red’ (or reed) sea. It is therefore associated for Christians with Easter, when we celebrate the freedom from sin and destruction of the power of death achieved by Jesus in his death and resurrection. Perhaps because of that, John chose to sing this to ‘Cwm Rhondda’ a tune equally associated with the hymn ‘Guide me, o my great redeemer’ and its final verse with the words “Death of death and hell’s destruction, land me safe on Canaan’s side”. The first verse of this hymn, in its final couplet, also refers to this: “through the waters God has brought us liberty”.

The second verse recounts God’s power demonstrated ‘in the storm and at the mountain’ (of Horeb, where the Ten Commandments were given in cloud and lightning). The third refers to God guiding us safely to our homeland, which in spiritual terms means heaven, but can also be applied in our earthly lives as God will often call people to move and change, an uncomfortable period in our lives, but with the purpose of bringing us to where we can have a fuller life and one where we can serve him better. The last verse makes the connection again between God leading the nation through the sea, and the One (Jesus) “whose blood released is from our deeper slavery”. It finishes with the Easter acclamation, “Alleluia, Christ is risen: we are free!”

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

St Michael & All Angels, Jarvis Brook – Stained glass window
© Copyright John Salmon and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

The Easter Sunday hymn from sing praise is titled, perhaps predictably, “Alleluia! Christ is Risen”, the shout of triumph and joy echoed by millions of Christians around the world today. This is, though, an unfamiliar hymn to me, written by the American composer Herbert F Brokering. The meters is unusual (9.10.9.10 + 10.9), the hymn book doesn’t offer any alternatives that fit it, and the I found the tune (“Earth and all stars”) a difficult one, even to sing along to a recording found online.

The hymn is in three verses, and is maybe intended to illustrate three ways in which the resurrection can be understood. The first is about the cosmic implications: “Trumpets resounding in glorious light! Splendour, the Lamb, heaven forever!” It is a fact not often mentioned that no-one actually witnessed the resurrection happening inside the sealed tomb, so it must remain a matter of faith, perhaps rightly so. Also, it was not just about completing the redemption of humans from sin, but more about starting to put right the decay of all creation that Paul refers to in Romans 8.

The second verse is about Jesus’ first appearance to the women at the tomb. “Weeping, be gone; Sorrow, be silent: death is defeated and Easter is bright. Angels announce, Jesus is risen!’ Clothe us in wonder, adorn us in light”. It was important for those first witnesses to go and tell what they had experienced, even though they could not make sense of it, but equally important was the transformation of mourning to joy at the sight of Jesus.

The last verse refers to the Emmaus Road story of Easter evening, but is phrased more as explaining the way that we, here and now, can experience the resurrection for ourselves as we learn more about him continue in fellowship with others and share Communion. “Walking the way, Christ walking in us, telling the story to open our eyes; breaking the bread, showing his glory; Jesus our blessing, our constant surprise.”

Cosmic event, immediate appearances to his disciples, and the ongoing transformation of lives through Christian fellowship: these are what we understand as the resurrection of Christ. Happy Easter to anyone who reads this!

Unless a grain of wheat shall fall

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is from one of my favourite contemporary hymnwriters, Bernadette Farrell. The form of the hymn is six verses of three short lines and a chorus, the words of which are “Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die, it remains but a single grain with no life”.

“Unless a grain of what shall fall” is based on Jesus’ explanation to his followers that his death was necessary in order that he could rise again in a new and eternal form and send the Holy Spirit, just as a seed has to be buried in the earth in order to sprout and come to life as a new plant.

In different ways, the verses call people to the Christian life, and are balanced to show that Jesus gives as much as he demands. We are called to die, live and eventually reign with Jesus; to serve him and follow him; to make our home in him as he makes his home in us in order to bear much fruit; to remain in him and let his word live in us; to love and be loved; and finally, without any action demanded of us, to accept the peace that he gives which the world cannot give.

All these sayings are to be found in John’s gospel, and are worthy of reflection as we approach Good Friday and Easter.